Federal authorities publish list of 'uncooperative' sanctuary cities

Carrie Doyle | April 5, 2017, 0:38

Federal authorities publish list of 'uncooperative' sanctuary cities

"Quite obviously, its a public shaming of local law enforcement agencies", said Susan Pai, a Jacksonville immigration attorney. Travis County, Tex., which includes the city of Austin, declined the most detainers - 142. The report introduction notes that law enforcement agencies don't often inform ICE that they're refusing the detainer request, so the report is based on what ICE employees are able to figure out for themselves. ICE said the number of detainers issued will grow over the next several weekly reports. Between Jan. 28 and February 3 of this year, law enforcement in Clark declined 51 detainers while those in Nassau declined 38.

The report said that NY amended its law in March 2013 not to honor a detainer. Meanwhile, 206 detainers issued by ICE were declined by jurisdictions throughout the country-including 1 at Santa Rita Jail in Alameda County where the citizen from Cambodia had a domestic violence conviction.

The report cites a 2014 City Council resolution that reaffirmed Cambridge's status as a "sanctuary city"-a label it adopted in 1985-and put limits on the city's compliance with ICE detainer requests". "However, federal case law has determined that detaining inmates beyond lawful release without sufficient probable cause or a judicial warrant from ICE is a violation of constitutional law".

"The Travis County sheriff's decision to deny ICE detainer requests and release back into our communities criminals charged with heinous crimes - including sexual offenses against children, domestic violence and kidnapping - is risky and should be criminal in itself", the Republican governor said.

Some law enforcement leaders, however, argue it is not their role to enforce federal immigration law, and that doing so would erode trust within communities leading to fewer people reporting crimes and acting as witnesses.

A federal district court in IL in 2014 found that detainers violate federal law because they exceed the government's warrantless arrest authority.

Keller said the jail and local officials are calling ICE to see where the five requests came from and how to solve the issue.

Trump, who repeatedly promised on the campaign trial to go after sanctuary cities, also blocked federal funding for sanctuary cities in one of his January executive orders. Bryant said that part was news to him. ICE places detainers on aliens who have been arrested on local criminal charges or who are in local custody and for whom ICE possesses probable cause to believe that they are removable from the United States, so that ICE can take custody of the alien when he or she is released from local custody.

Cochran also pointed to studies showing that there is less "incidence of criminality" among immigrants when compared with the population of people born here, adding that "recent research" found "communities with so-called "sanctuary" policies are safer than those without them".